@Anti-Matter A crime? No, sorry. I can't agree with that one.
It's supply and demand. The supply was too low and the demand was too high.
I don't like scalping, either. But if people weren't so blindly obsessed with a piece of card with a bit of shiny ink on it to the point that they'll pay thousands of dollars for it...then it wouldn't happen. It's not like these cards are making anybody play the game any better. Most of these people don't even know HOW to play the game.
If an idiot wanted to give you $500 for a rock you found in your garden, you would sell it to him. So would I. If an idiot wants to pay $500 for a box of cards that retailed at $75 last week, what's the difference?
If scalping is a crime, then so is buying a box of these cards, opening them, finding a rare one, and then selling that card to a collector. You only paid a buck or two for the card as part of the box, so why should you get $1000 for it just because the thing is in demand?
Far as I see it, the only parties in the wrong are the retailer for selling multiple units to one customer, and the manufacturer, who absolutely misjudged how many of these items could be sold, and didn't make enough. Or...y'know...who did that on purpose to generate a LOT of column inches and drive demand of future sets.
@SwitchedOn_Games I feel you're being massively unfair, given that you have no idea when they are receiving their access to these games.
From experience, it's not uncommon for even large sites to get review copies of games as late as the day the game is out for sale, or even later than that. Even if it turned up two or three days before, it's simply not fair to expect a member of staff to put 10-15 hours a day into a massive game and then also come up with a well-written and detailed review in time for launch.
Money or not, the staff are human and deserve to be treated as such. If the upshot of that is that a few people are left sweating and wringing their hands over their purchase decision for a couple of days because they refuse to take any sort of risk ever, then so be it.
"Why are you writing this? This isn't news!" they ask, on an article that took no effort to source, about 4 minutes to write, and which has 44 on-site comments, 28 replies on Twitter, and 224 likes.
They write about what you'll read about. As has always been the way.
@Rohanrocks88 No. None of this is correct. It isn't "communism." That defence is schoolyard-weak.
Other people have the same rights as you.
You're allowed to say whatever you like, as long as it doesn't break the site's rules.
Other people are allowed to disagree with you and voice their disagreement, as long as they also are not in violation of the site's rules.
That's how discussion works. It isn't "rohanrocks88's opinion is the only one that's allowed. Nobody can reply in case rohanrocks88 starts to feel as if he is being criticized."
"You seem like a sweet girl" as your opening salvo is condescending and patronizing. Of course you're going to be criticized by the community.
If you don't like the writer, don't read her. You don't have to call the writer out in order to do that. Just shut the browser tab and move on. Is it that difficult for you to NOT shout your opinion in people's face on every little subject?
@arabiansanchez You don't need to fathom the attitude.
People don't need to enjoy their games the way YOU expect them to enjoy them. That's kinda the point of the whole article.
@ghostsoundjosh "I believe as a games journalist you should be finishing games as much as possible, understanding that there are time constraints."
Well, you're incorrect, then. As a games journalist, it's far more valuable to have knowledge of a wide range of games than it is to have a deep knowledge of four games that you've put 300 hours apiece into. Unless you only write about those four games, of course.
You might be asked to write about Monster Energy Supercross one day, Stardew Valley the next, Dance Dance Revolution the next, and then have to review an indie game that is a spiritual successor to Teleroboxer. You get more frames of reference from playing 20 games for 6 hours apiece than you do by playing Assassin's Creed: Valhalla for 120 hours because somebody on the internet - who let everybody know who they are by dropping 'woke' into the first sentence of their attempted takedown - decided that you should.
To call the author's credibility into question because she plays more games than most people is just bizarre.
@COVIDberry You have very much gotten the wrong end of the stick.
I think there should be legislation that REQUIRES products that contain lootboxes (such as Ultimate Team) to be a) audited by a third-party body to ensure that the drops are truly random and not based on player engagement/activity/previous spending patterns and to b) contain the ability for players to self-exclude, time out, or hard limit purchases in the same way that gambling sites do.
As for age ratings...you can be fined for selling an 18-rated game to a minor in the UK, as well. Doesn't seem to have stopped GTA V/GTA Online from being the most financially successful media title of all time, does it? And is every person playing an adult? Or are the vast majority of them under the age of 18?
How many times is a 12-year-old going to the store to hand over £60 for a game? How many times is it going to be the parent that does it? And how many times is the parent going to pick up a copy of a FIFA and say "Oh, now...this is 18 rated. I'd better not buy this SPORTS GAME for my son!"
When buying digitally, how many times is the person even going to remotely pay attention to the relatively tiny "PEGI 18" logo? And without any sort of age verification in play, what's to stop the kid with £60 of Xbox credit from changing his date of birth to 20 years ago and just buying the game?
You've decided that I think any of this is "OK" for some reason. I don't know why. All I said was that increasing age ratings on the product was pointless. It's a vote-winning exercise and nothing more. I've said there should be legislation. It's nothing about my rights - since they wouldn't be infringed upon, as an adult - or about advocating for EA.
Age ratings aren't needed, here. They will do nothing.
It's also unrealistic to expect EA to remove something that makes then $1.5billion a year.
What is needed are preventions and self-care tools much as the gambling industry has in place. EA have tried to make it look like they're doing that by introducing a new feature that tracks your play and spending. It also lets you set a limit as to how many packs you can open and how many points you can spend.
I mean, you hit the limit and it says "You're at your limit, do you want to ignore your limit and carry on anyway?" and you can go ahead with a single button press...but hey...I guess it'll prevent any real legislation from turning up for another year or two.
@BlubberWhale I would argue that those parents aren't in the majority. You just need to look at how many kids are playing GTA Online, CoD, or the PEGI 16-rated Apex Legends to see that's the case.
I'm sure the age ratings are helpful to some, but the vast majority of people who would stop their kids from watching an 18-rated movie would let them play an 18-rated videogame because "it's only a game."
...which will make no difference to anything, because the only people who pay any attention to age ratings in this industry are the folks responsible for handing out those ratings.
And even they wouldn't be that bothered if they didn't get paid for it.
'I can already hear you asking “what would you suggest as an alternative?”, but this isn’t a one size fits all situation.'
Sure there is. Make the game shorter.
Gamers and - in turn - the industry, assign massive value to how many hours of play a game provides. The problem is that in an 80-hour game, you're only being entertained for about 10% of the time. The rest is busywork, grinding, or travelling through empty open worlds. Sure, that can create an atmosphere, but it only works very rarely.
Tighten the games up. Get rid of the grind. Remove the padding, and people would be able to consume more high-quality entertainment experiences in the same amount of time.
The answer to the question in the headline is "when companies realised that mugs would pony up the money for it so they had something to show off on social media."
The game - or being able to play it - isn't of any importance. All that matters is that those likes come in when you do the old "Wow! Look at what arrived!" post on Facebook as if you somehow had no idea the $150 limited edition thing you bought was arriving.
It also creates a nice gap so that in five years, they can re-release them on their new lead platform for the 40th anniversary. Ten years later, it'll be the same thing for the 50th.
They proved long ago that as long as people keep paying for the same thing, they'll keep putting it in a shiny new box and selling it. Can't blame them, really.
As a former eBay PowerSeller, I absolutely guarantee that the person who bought this will shortly be filing a claim saying "BUT THE BOXES TURNED UP EMPTY THO."
Most people don't read descriptions on eBay. They look at the pictures and mash their drooling faces into the screen until it says "Order Complete."
@Zyph "The fact the people are ignoring similar issues is an issue in itself."
It depends on what you mean by "ignoring" really. Am I ignoring an issue when it hasn't cropped up on any of a dozen other controllers that I own?
Plus, when I've had an issue with an Xbox controller - which I have had, twice, both non-drift related - I just go to the Microsoft site, print a returns label, send it off, and get a new one back within a week. I haven't had to call a hotline, chat with anyone, send an email, or act before some arbitrary cut-off period in order for them to provide a working product. That's the main concern here. Other companies seem to want to make things right, while Nintendo is doing the "we're a multi-billion dollar corporation who cannot answer an email" routine.
@Zyph The fact that other controllers have the issue isn't even a factor. For the record, my DS3s and 4s (2 of each), Xbox One launch controllers (x2), Xbox Elite Series 1, and Xbox Elite Series 2 haven't shown any signs of the issue. Heck, I've got launch Dreamcast and PS2 controllers that don't drift 20-odd years after I bought them.
If you bought an LG TV and it didn't power up, you wouldn't be happy if you went to LG for a refund or replacement and they replied with "Well...no...because we heard of a Samsung TV that had power issues once."
And the "first gen is a testing phase" is ludicrous, I'm afraid. The money they charged me for the console isn't test money, and there's nothing on the box that says "Caveat Emptor: This is our first try, so it might be broken, OK?"
You might not like seeing Nintendo in court, but if they're flatly ignoring correspondence and refusing to make things right, that's what happens.
It's an inherently anti-consumer move designed to create FOMO and to backload sales into the final financial quarter of the year. That kid who gets a Switch for his birthday in April and loved 3D World on the Wii U? Sucks to be him!
Wouldn't surprise me if they re-release them all "due to demand" in October next year, where it'll be pushed as a SUPER positive move that shows exactly how much Nintendo listen to their fans. And sadly, a lot of people won't see past it.
These companies need to grow a pair and just step up and ban griefers.
Stop warning them. Just ban them. The players engaging in this behaviour know exactly what they're doing. If they go so far as to appeal their ban then sure, reinstate their access one time. Everyone can make a mistake or do something they later regret.
But if they then go on and do it again, ban them for good. From every game your company makes.
Great premise and plenty of fun when it launched on Xbox, but I hope they throw an option in on Switch to allow you to turn off the shouting.
I know it's right there in the title, but it's genuinely headache-inducing. Every single time you move the cart, one of the two characters just bellows a monotonous single note until you let go of the throttle.
@COVIDberry Absolutely, there's no reason I should have paid customs fees on that item. Like I say, the rules are applied seemingly randomly and contesting them is pointless.
If you so much as hint that you aren't going to pay, they just throw an "unpaid fee" sticker on the package and return it to sender.
@COVIDberry No. The Taiko drum was from Japan, the PS2 games from Japan, and the shirts from the States. Brexit or not, the rules are applied seemingly at random.
"Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable for import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £39 are also liable for VAT. Goods and gifts over these values may also be liable for customs duty." say the rules. Yet I bought £300 of drum equipment from Thomann in Germany and didn't pay a penny in fees. A week later, I bought a £10 Dreamcast game from an eBay seller in France and got hit with a £12 customs charge.
It makes it difficult for both the buyer and the seller to have any idea what's going on. As a buyer in the UK, you essentially have to assume that you're going to get charged, and then take it as good fortune if you don't.
Here are the rules for those who may be unaware, for future reference:-
All mail that enters the UK may be examined by Customs. Letters, postcards and parcels containing only documents are usually exempt.
If you’re receiving a parcel from a country outside the EU it may incur Customs charges.
Any parcel assessed as being liable for Customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8.
Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable for import VAT.
Gifts between private individuals over the value of £39 are also liable for VAT. Goods and gifts over these values may also be liable for customs duty.
You no longer have to pay Customs duty for goods up to the value of £135. However, you will still be required to pay import VAT and excise duty where applicable.
@retro_player_77 "This is to remind people that Kickstarter project with big names attach to it are scummy and that's not even my opinion that's a fact."
You need to learn how opinions and facts work, because you clearly don't understand either.
@EllenJMiller Indeed. Items can get through without a charge.
Yet, I paid £26 customs fees on a £100 Taiko no Tatsujin drum a couple of months back, an £18 fee on £30 of t-shirts last week, and forked out £12 in fees for four second-hand Japanese PS2 games the week before that.
If you order a non-essential product, you can (and often will) get hit with customs fees. It isn't something Platinum, nor Kickstarter, can control.
@retro_player_77 Good for you. Not sure why you've gone off on a rant about games being bad when the article is about customs charges, but you do you.
Meanwhile, I'll sit here playing the digital version of The Wonderful 101 Remastered that is exactly what I thought it would be, that I backed digitally for £29, and that was delivered without a problem.
I know it sucks, but I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. When they say "we are not responsible for any local duties, VAT, or taxes" then...strangely...that's exactly what they mean.
Pretty much every product I've ordered from outside the UK over the years has had a customs charge levied against it by the UK government. It isn't a new thing, and it isn't something that Kickstarter or Platinum really have any control over. They can offer to build the customs fee into the shipping cost, but then people would be apoplectic that the digital edition is £29 and the physical edition is £60.
I don't see how they win other than by not offering a physical edition, which people would then kick off about.
@Seananigans "I feel like the writer of this article misses the point of Animal Crossing. There IS a right way to play it."
The author says "I've been playing Animal Crossing wrong" in the very title of the piece. Kinda suggests she's already aware that there's an alternative way to play it - a "right" way, if you will - does it not?
@Zidentia Not disagreeing with what you're saying. I just don't understand how "some subscribers fall away or don't watch the videos" and "advertisers don't get 930,000 ad views from a channel with 930,000 subscribers" has anything to do with whether being a YouTuber that makes actual money is a real job or not, which was the point of the discussion.
@Zidentia "I tend to feel this really does not qualify as a real job."
Fair enough. I'm sure the people earning salaries that are many multiples of what they would earn working on a customer service desk or in a store would disagree.
As for the rest...you're describing a job. With a skills requirement. Retaining subscribers and keeping them engaged is part of the job. And advertisers hit the demographic because they aren't paying for subscribers who aren't active. They're paying per view.
"It does not offer real entertainment" and "if we were directly paying for it we would look for the highest quality, best value for our money" are largely subjective, too. It may not be real entertainment to you, but it seems to fit the bill for many, many millions of people. As for looking for the highest quality...you can just look at any videogame sales chart to realise that what many would say is trash represents high quality value for money entertainment for a lot of people.
@Julien And it's about time people such as yourself started seeing "entertainment provider" as a real job.
Do you think people just trip over and suddenly find that they have 931,000 subscribers? Or do you think that they work hard to get there?
Maybe it's not digging a hole or some other profession that you deem to be a "real job" but so what? They're creating their OWN job and making their own money without relying on government handouts or loans. I'm not saying they're all perfect, but damn get off your high horse.
@AM7519 "The reviewer sounds like a non-fnaf fan who was randomly chosen to judge this games flaws instead of talk about the pros."
"I would've looked at it from a fan's point of view while thinking critically, resulting in a 7/10"
A reviewer isn't writing a review FOR THE FANS. It's absolutely not his or her job to appease the fans of a game franchise. If they do that along the way, then OK. But it should NEVER be the case that a reviewer's opinion is influenced by what the fans of a franchise are going to think about what they have to say.
The rabid fans are going to buy the game anyway.
Plus, not trying to be rude here, but you admitted to not having played this version of the game on Switch yet ("I'll still get it"), then have claimed the review is stupid and that you'd give the game 7/10. How do you come to ANY of those conclusions without having been hands-on with the product in question?
I was more talking about the FNAF "superfans" who are calling for the writer to be fired for his opinion because it doesn't mesh with their own myopic viewpoint.
It's weird how what are clearly FNAF superfans who have probably played the games every day for five years and spend their non-playing time watching "<Random Person> Reacts to FNAF" videos on YouTube all seem to disagree with a negative review that makes several relatively valid-sounding points to back up a low score.
That's not the sort of thing you see on the internets every single day.
If people would understand that the concept of self-control is all but removed at the point that somebody crosses the line from "normal behaviour" and into "addicted" territory, that would be great. Not having the mental ability to control yourself against whatever negative force is the literal definition of addiction.
The people who say "so they should just stop" don't understand what's going on, because they can't, because they most likely haven't been there. You can't just get up one day and decide "I'm not addicted to this anymore" because the mental ability to do that is all but taken from you. You may have every intention of stopping, but then you start convincing yourself that you have it under control and are a perfectly healthy person who can enjoy the thing the same way everybody else does. So you'll just have one more go. And then you're back in it. But tomorrow, you'll stop. Then tomorrow. Then the next day.
You would need to have been addicted to something other than punching downwards once in your life to know that, of course.
Years ago, I was addicted to online gambling and poker. I tried to stop. I sought help. I gave my bank cards to my friends to stop myself from being able to have a bet or buy chips. It didn't work. I always found a way. It almost pushed me over the edge, in honesty. What broke the cycle for me was bookmakers and poker sites all bringing in optional spending limits at once. I could drop £50 into my account, and know that there was no way that I could deposit more, so I'd have to be careful and not blow through it all in one shot. The second I had that safety line - and I'll admit that I tried to bypass it a couple of times - I was on the road to recovery. I can join a game of poker or have a small bet on the game at the weekend if I want to and if I think it'll be fun. The cycle was broken as soon as those protections were in place. I chose to employ those restrictions, so I was - in effect - "looking after myself." There have been many years since where I haven't so much as spent a dime on poker or gambling, neither have I really been drawn to.
Gaming doesn't have these protections. At all. Sure, you can set up a "child" account that prevents spending, but that doesn't mean anything when you can go to your local supermarket and buy £100 of FIFA Points and still redeem it. It doesn't help the person who owns both the child and the parent account, who can switch back into the parent account and just spend whatever he or she wants. Each lootbox-enabled game needs an optional spending limit, along with optional time-out periods and entire self-exclusion from purchases, if the player desires.
It isn't about "mental weakness" or "look after yourself." It's about GIVING PEOPLE THE TOOLS to be able to look after themselves when they succumb to the sneaky marketing practices and systems that companies like EA (and every other company that uses lootboxes) employ in an attempt to addict them to their product.
(Also, nobody is asking gamers to do anything. They're asking the lawmakers to do something. That's why it's a lawsuit and not a change.org petition.)
Comments 237
Re: Exclusive: Fast Fusion's First Major Update Arrives This Week With Three New Tracks
@USWITCH64 It's $15 and is easily the best value on the console.
How on earth is it "too expensive"?
Re: Wait, Is The Pokémon Company Finally Making Good On Its TCG Reprint Promise?
@Anti-Matter A crime? No, sorry. I can't agree with that one.
It's supply and demand. The supply was too low and the demand was too high.
I don't like scalping, either. But if people weren't so blindly obsessed with a piece of card with a bit of shiny ink on it to the point that they'll pay thousands of dollars for it...then it wouldn't happen. It's not like these cards are making anybody play the game any better. Most of these people don't even know HOW to play the game.
If an idiot wanted to give you $500 for a rock you found in your garden, you would sell it to him. So would I. If an idiot wants to pay $500 for a box of cards that retailed at $75 last week, what's the difference?
If scalping is a crime, then so is buying a box of these cards, opening them, finding a rare one, and then selling that card to a collector. You only paid a buck or two for the card as part of the box, so why should you get $1000 for it just because the thing is in demand?
Far as I see it, the only parties in the wrong are the retailer for selling multiple units to one customer, and the manufacturer, who absolutely misjudged how many of these items could be sold, and didn't make enough. Or...y'know...who did that on purpose to generate a LOT of column inches and drive demand of future sets.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (1st February)
UFO 50 and Trombone Champ on PC for me
Re: Site News: So, Where's Our Harvestella Review?
@SwitchedOn_Games I feel you're being massively unfair, given that you have no idea when they are receiving their access to these games.
From experience, it's not uncommon for even large sites to get review copies of games as late as the day the game is out for sale, or even later than that. Even if it turned up two or three days before, it's simply not fair to expect a member of staff to put 10-15 hours a day into a massive game and then also come up with a well-written and detailed review in time for launch.
Money or not, the staff are human and deserve to be treated as such. If the upshot of that is that a few people are left sweating and wringing their hands over their purchase decision for a couple of days because they refuse to take any sort of risk ever, then so be it.
Re: Random: Smash Bros. Director Masahiro Sakurai Just Bought An Xbox Series X
"Why are you writing this? This isn't news!" they ask, on an article that took no effort to source, about 4 minutes to write, and which has 44 on-site comments, 28 replies on Twitter, and 224 likes.
They write about what you'll read about. As has always been the way.
Re: Feature: A Perfect Metascore? We Play The Switch Game "Better Than Zelda: Breath Of The Wild"
@Rohanrocks88 No. None of this is correct. It isn't "communism." That defence is schoolyard-weak.
Other people have the same rights as you.
You're allowed to say whatever you like, as long as it doesn't break the site's rules.
Other people are allowed to disagree with you and voice their disagreement, as long as they also are not in violation of the site's rules.
That's how discussion works. It isn't "rohanrocks88's opinion is the only one that's allowed. Nobody can reply in case rohanrocks88 starts to feel as if he is being criticized."
"You seem like a sweet girl" as your opening salvo is condescending and patronizing. Of course you're going to be criticized by the community.
If you don't like the writer, don't read her. You don't have to call the writer out in order to do that. Just shut the browser tab and move on. Is it that difficult for you to NOT shout your opinion in people's face on every little subject?
Re: The Absolute Worst Castlevania Is Coming To Switch This Week
@EmmatheBest Yes, it's worth noting.
But it's not worth calling somebody a liar over.
Re: Soapbox: It's Time To Normalise Giving Up On Games Early
@arabiansanchez You don't need to fathom the attitude.
People don't need to enjoy their games the way YOU expect them to enjoy them. That's kinda the point of the whole article.
Re: Soapbox: It's Time To Normalise Giving Up On Games Early
@ghostsoundjosh "I believe as a games journalist you should be finishing games as much as possible, understanding that there are time constraints."
Well, you're incorrect, then. As a games journalist, it's far more valuable to have knowledge of a wide range of games than it is to have a deep knowledge of four games that you've put 300 hours apiece into. Unless you only write about those four games, of course.
You might be asked to write about Monster Energy Supercross one day, Stardew Valley the next, Dance Dance Revolution the next, and then have to review an indie game that is a spiritual successor to Teleroboxer. You get more frames of reference from playing 20 games for 6 hours apiece than you do by playing Assassin's Creed: Valhalla for 120 hours because somebody on the internet - who let everybody know who they are by dropping 'woke' into the first sentence of their attempted takedown - decided that you should.
To call the author's credibility into question because she plays more games than most people is just bizarre.
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
@Razer "Lol so who thinks players someone might have purchased in FIFA 2018 will be worth big bucks in 2038?"
Literally nobody.
What?
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
@COVIDberry You have very much gotten the wrong end of the stick.
I think there should be legislation that REQUIRES products that contain lootboxes (such as Ultimate Team) to be a) audited by a third-party body to ensure that the drops are truly random and not based on player engagement/activity/previous spending patterns and to b) contain the ability for players to self-exclude, time out, or hard limit purchases in the same way that gambling sites do.
As for age ratings...you can be fined for selling an 18-rated game to a minor in the UK, as well. Doesn't seem to have stopped GTA V/GTA Online from being the most financially successful media title of all time, does it? And is every person playing an adult? Or are the vast majority of them under the age of 18?
How many times is a 12-year-old going to the store to hand over £60 for a game? How many times is it going to be the parent that does it? And how many times is the parent going to pick up a copy of a FIFA and say "Oh, now...this is 18 rated. I'd better not buy this SPORTS GAME for my son!"
When buying digitally, how many times is the person even going to remotely pay attention to the relatively tiny "PEGI 18" logo? And without any sort of age verification in play, what's to stop the kid with £60 of Xbox credit from changing his date of birth to 20 years ago and just buying the game?
You've decided that I think any of this is "OK" for some reason. I don't know why. All I said was that increasing age ratings on the product was pointless. It's a vote-winning exercise and nothing more. I've said there should be legislation. It's nothing about my rights - since they wouldn't be infringed upon, as an adult - or about advocating for EA.
But I guess you're just out looking for a fight.
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
@doctorhino And I guarantee that it wouldn't affect sales in the slightest.
How many parents do you think are going to honestly look at the 18+ age rating and say "Well, I don't want MY child playing a...football game."
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
Age ratings aren't needed, here. They will do nothing.
It's also unrealistic to expect EA to remove something that makes then $1.5billion a year.
What is needed are preventions and self-care tools much as the gambling industry has in place. EA have tried to make it look like they're doing that by introducing a new feature that tracks your play and spending. It also lets you set a limit as to how many packs you can open and how many points you can spend.
I mean, you hit the limit and it says "You're at your limit, do you want to ignore your limit and carry on anyway?" and you can go ahead with a single button press...but hey...I guess it'll prevent any real legislation from turning up for another year or two.
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
@BlubberWhale I would argue that those parents aren't in the majority. You just need to look at how many kids are playing GTA Online, CoD, or the PEGI 16-rated Apex Legends to see that's the case.
I'm sure the age ratings are helpful to some, but the vast majority of people who would stop their kids from watching an 18-rated movie would let them play an 18-rated videogame because "it's only a game."
Re: Germany Is Considering An 18+ Rating On Video Games With Loot Boxes
...which will make no difference to anything, because the only people who pay any attention to age ratings in this industry are the folks responsible for handing out those ratings.
And even they wouldn't be that bothered if they didn't get paid for it.
Re: Soapbox: Grinding Is Poor Gameplay Design That Doesn’t Respect Your Time
'I can already hear you asking “what would you suggest as an alternative?”, but this isn’t a one size fits all situation.'
Sure there is. Make the game shorter.
Gamers and - in turn - the industry, assign massive value to how many hours of play a game provides. The problem is that in an 80-hour game, you're only being entertained for about 10% of the time. The rest is busywork, grinding, or travelling through empty open worlds. Sure, that can create an atmosphere, but it only works very rarely.
Tighten the games up. Get rid of the grind. Remove the padding, and people would be able to consume more high-quality entertainment experiences in the same amount of time.
Re: Soapbox: Since When Did Physical Releases Stop Being About Physical Games?
The answer to the question in the headline is "when companies realised that mugs would pony up the money for it so they had something to show off on social media."
The game - or being able to play it - isn't of any importance. All that matters is that those likes come in when you do the old "Wow! Look at what arrived!" post on Facebook as if you somehow had no idea the $150 limited edition thing you bought was arriving.
Re: A Crazy Taxi Spiritual Successor Is Coming To Switch Next Year, And Sega Is (Sort Of) Involved
Just hook it up to my veins.
Re: Bowser Tries To Explain Why Mario's Games Will Be Removed On 31st March 2021
"To sell more games. Quicker."
That's it. That's the reason.
It also creates a nice gap so that in five years, they can re-release them on their new lead platform for the 40th anniversary. Ten years later, it'll be the same thing for the 50th.
They proved long ago that as long as people keep paying for the same thing, they'll keep putting it in a shiny new box and selling it. Can't blame them, really.
Re: Poll: Did You Know That Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit Supports Up To Four Players?
No, but then again, it can support as many players as it wants, given that it likely won't support the fact that my house is carpeted.
Or that my cat will go to WORK on those karts the second they start moving.
Re: Random: eBay User Makes Small Fortune Selling Old Pokémon Game Boxes And Manuals In 'Good' Condition
As a former eBay PowerSeller, I absolutely guarantee that the person who bought this will shortly be filing a claim saying "BUT THE BOXES TURNED UP EMPTY THO."
Most people don't read descriptions on eBay. They look at the pictures and mash their drooling faces into the screen until it says "Order Complete."
Re: Join Us For The Nintendo Life Indie Spotlight At PAX Online 2020
Teleroboxer remaster or we riot.
Re: Pokémon Funko Pops Are Finally Launching In Europe, And They're Super-Sized
Utterly horrifying.
Nobody has told Funko that they are allowed to see something and NOT make a series of diabolically ugly toys out of it, it seems.
Re: Switch Owner Claims To Have Taken Nintendo To Court Over Joy-Con Drift, And Won
@RiasGremory It isn't "bs" that I haven't had stick drift problems on any other console at all. I haven't.
Sorry if that somehow upsets you, but it's the truth.
Re: Switch Owner Claims To Have Taken Nintendo To Court Over Joy-Con Drift, And Won
@Zyph "The fact the people are ignoring similar issues is an issue in itself."
It depends on what you mean by "ignoring" really. Am I ignoring an issue when it hasn't cropped up on any of a dozen other controllers that I own?
Plus, when I've had an issue with an Xbox controller - which I have had, twice, both non-drift related - I just go to the Microsoft site, print a returns label, send it off, and get a new one back within a week. I haven't had to call a hotline, chat with anyone, send an email, or act before some arbitrary cut-off period in order for them to provide a working product. That's the main concern here. Other companies seem to want to make things right, while Nintendo is doing the "we're a multi-billion dollar corporation who cannot answer an email" routine.
Re: Switch Owner Claims To Have Taken Nintendo To Court Over Joy-Con Drift, And Won
@Zyph The fact that other controllers have the issue isn't even a factor. For the record, my DS3s and 4s (2 of each), Xbox One launch controllers (x2), Xbox Elite Series 1, and Xbox Elite Series 2 haven't shown any signs of the issue. Heck, I've got launch Dreamcast and PS2 controllers that don't drift 20-odd years after I bought them.
If you bought an LG TV and it didn't power up, you wouldn't be happy if you went to LG for a refund or replacement and they replied with "Well...no...because we heard of a Samsung TV that had power issues once."
And the "first gen is a testing phase" is ludicrous, I'm afraid. The money they charged me for the console isn't test money, and there's nothing on the box that says "Caveat Emptor: This is our first try, so it might be broken, OK?"
You might not like seeing Nintendo in court, but if they're flatly ignoring correspondence and refusing to make things right, that's what happens.
Re: Poll: How Do You Feel About 'Limited-Time' Games From Nintendo?
It's an inherently anti-consumer move designed to create FOMO and to backload sales into the final financial quarter of the year. That kid who gets a Switch for his birthday in April and loved 3D World on the Wii U? Sucks to be him!
Wouldn't surprise me if they re-release them all "due to demand" in October next year, where it'll be pushed as a SUPER positive move that shows exactly how much Nintendo listen to their fans. And sadly, a lot of people won't see past it.
Re: Ninjala Dev Issues Second Ban Warning To Mischievous Players
These companies need to grow a pair and just step up and ban griefers.
Stop warning them. Just ban them. The players engaging in this behaviour know exactly what they're doing. If they go so far as to appeal their ban then sure, reinstate their access one time. Everyone can make a mistake or do something they later regret.
But if they then go on and do it again, ban them for good. From every game your company makes.
Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Transformed Into Stunning Studio Ghibli-Inspired Poster
Some way short of the Ghibli mark, in all honesty, "inspired by" or not.
The characters look closer to mid-80s Hanna-Barbera. You could drop that Link into the Dungeons & Dragons animated series and he would fit right in.
Re: Hot Wheels Shares A Sneak Peek Of Its New Mario Kart Racers
These look cool. I would buy them all if they weren't blindboxed. If I don't know what I'm paying for, I'm not paying for it.
Re: Soapbox: It's Time For WWE No Mercy To Make A Comeback On Nintendo Switch
Yes.
No other words needed.
Re: Nintendo Expands Its Switch Online SNES And NES Service With Three More Titles
Natsume Championship Wrestling is where it's at.
Re: Award-Winning And Utterly Bonkers Kart Racer Supermarket Shriek Announced For Switch
Great premise and plenty of fun when it launched on Xbox, but I hope they throw an option in on Switch to allow you to turn off the shouting.
I know it's right there in the title, but it's genuinely headache-inducing. Every single time you move the cart, one of the two characters just bellows a monotonous single note until you let go of the throttle.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
@COVIDberry Absolutely, there's no reason I should have paid customs fees on that item. Like I say, the rules are applied seemingly randomly and contesting them is pointless.
If you so much as hint that you aren't going to pay, they just throw an "unpaid fee" sticker on the package and return it to sender.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
@COVIDberry No. The Taiko drum was from Japan, the PS2 games from Japan, and the shirts from the States. Brexit or not, the rules are applied seemingly at random.
"Any goods imported into the UK over the value of £15 are liable for import VAT. Gifts between private individuals over the value of £39 are also liable for VAT. Goods and gifts over these values may also be liable for customs duty." say the rules. Yet I bought £300 of drum equipment from Thomann in Germany and didn't pay a penny in fees. A week later, I bought a £10 Dreamcast game from an eBay seller in France and got hit with a £12 customs charge.
It makes it difficult for both the buyer and the seller to have any idea what's going on. As a buyer in the UK, you essentially have to assume that you're going to get charged, and then take it as good fortune if you don't.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
Here are the rules for those who may be unaware, for future reference:-
From: https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/143/~/ive-received-a-grey-fee-to-pay-card
The word "may" in the first line is important. It explains (to an extent) why some people will not have to pay this charge.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
@retro_player_77 "This is to remind people that Kickstarter project with big names attach to it are scummy and that's not even my opinion that's a fact."
You need to learn how opinions and facts work, because you clearly don't understand either.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
@EllenJMiller Indeed. Items can get through without a charge.
Yet, I paid £26 customs fees on a £100 Taiko no Tatsujin drum a couple of months back, an £18 fee on £30 of t-shirts last week, and forked out £12 in fees for four second-hand Japanese PS2 games the week before that.
If you order a non-essential product, you can (and often will) get hit with customs fees. It isn't something Platinum, nor Kickstarter, can control.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
@retro_player_77 Good for you. Not sure why you've gone off on a rant about games being bad when the article is about customs charges, but you do you.
Meanwhile, I'll sit here playing the digital version of The Wonderful 101 Remastered that is exactly what I thought it would be, that I backed digitally for £29, and that was delivered without a problem.
Re: Wonderful 101 Kickstarter Backers Hit With Customs Charges And Handling Fees
I know it sucks, but I'm not sure why it's such a surprise. When they say "we are not responsible for any local duties, VAT, or taxes" then...strangely...that's exactly what they mean.
Pretty much every product I've ordered from outside the UK over the years has had a customs charge levied against it by the UK government. It isn't a new thing, and it isn't something that Kickstarter or Platinum really have any control over. They can offer to build the customs fee into the shipping cost, but then people would be apoplectic that the digital edition is £29 and the physical edition is £60.
I don't see how they win other than by not offering a physical edition, which people would then kick off about.
Re: Soapbox: I've Been Playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wrong All This Time, But No More
@Seananigans "I feel like the writer of this article misses the point of Animal Crossing. There IS a right way to play it."
The author says "I've been playing Animal Crossing wrong" in the very title of the piece. Kinda suggests she's already aware that there's an alternative way to play it - a "right" way, if you will - does it not?
Re: Nintendo Is Supposedly Restructuring Its Brand Ambassador Program
@Zidentia Not disagreeing with what you're saying. I just don't understand how "some subscribers fall away or don't watch the videos" and "advertisers don't get 930,000 ad views from a channel with 930,000 subscribers" has anything to do with whether being a YouTuber that makes actual money is a real job or not, which was the point of the discussion.
Re: Nintendo Is Supposedly Restructuring Its Brand Ambassador Program
@Zidentia "I tend to feel this really does not qualify as a real job."
Fair enough. I'm sure the people earning salaries that are many multiples of what they would earn working on a customer service desk or in a store would disagree.
As for the rest...you're describing a job. With a skills requirement. Retaining subscribers and keeping them engaged is part of the job. And advertisers hit the demographic because they aren't paying for subscribers who aren't active. They're paying per view.
"It does not offer real entertainment" and "if we were directly paying for it we would look for the highest quality, best value for our money" are largely subjective, too. It may not be real entertainment to you, but it seems to fit the bill for many, many millions of people. As for looking for the highest quality...you can just look at any videogame sales chart to realise that what many would say is trash represents high quality value for money entertainment for a lot of people.
Re: Nintendo Is Supposedly Restructuring Its Brand Ambassador Program
@Julien And it's about time people such as yourself started seeing "entertainment provider" as a real job.
Do you think people just trip over and suddenly find that they have 931,000 subscribers? Or do you think that they work hard to get there?
Maybe it's not digging a hole or some other profession that you deem to be a "real job" but so what? They're creating their OWN job and making their own money without relying on government handouts or loans. I'm not saying they're all perfect, but damn get off your high horse.
Re: Review: Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted - A Largely Pointless Cash-Grab
@AM7519 "The reviewer sounds like a non-fnaf fan who was randomly chosen to judge this games flaws instead of talk about the pros."
"I would've looked at it from a fan's point of view while thinking critically, resulting in a 7/10"
A reviewer isn't writing a review FOR THE FANS. It's absolutely not his or her job to appease the fans of a game franchise. If they do that along the way, then OK. But it should NEVER be the case that a reviewer's opinion is influenced by what the fans of a franchise are going to think about what they have to say.
The rabid fans are going to buy the game anyway.
Plus, not trying to be rude here, but you admitted to not having played this version of the game on Switch yet ("I'll still get it"), then have claimed the review is stupid and that you'd give the game 7/10. How do you come to ANY of those conclusions without having been hands-on with the product in question?
Answer: You reasonably can't.
Re: Review: Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted - A Largely Pointless Cash-Grab
@patbacknitro18 And good luck to them.
I was more talking about the FNAF "superfans" who are calling for the writer to be fired for his opinion because it doesn't mesh with their own myopic viewpoint.
Re: Review: Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted - A Largely Pointless Cash-Grab
It's weird how what are clearly FNAF superfans who have probably played the games every day for five years and spend their non-playing time watching "<Random Person> Reacts to FNAF" videos on YouTube all seem to disagree with a negative review that makes several relatively valid-sounding points to back up a low score.
That's not the sort of thing you see on the internets every single day.
Re: UK News Outlet Calls Animal Crossing's Nature Day "A Farce", Says It "Teaches Kids Toxic Lessons"
@SalvorHardin Wow. That's some PREMIUM tin-foil hattery.
Re: Sludge Life Is Quite Unlike Any Game We've Seen, And It's Coming To Switch This Spring
Intrigued for sure. Despite my ongoing concerns about Etsy.
Re: New Lawsuits Claim FIFA Is Built On "Illusionary And Addictive" Pay-To-Win Mechanics
If people would understand that the concept of self-control is all but removed at the point that somebody crosses the line from "normal behaviour" and into "addicted" territory, that would be great. Not having the mental ability to control yourself against whatever negative force is the literal definition of addiction.
The people who say "so they should just stop" don't understand what's going on, because they can't, because they most likely haven't been there. You can't just get up one day and decide "I'm not addicted to this anymore" because the mental ability to do that is all but taken from you. You may have every intention of stopping, but then you start convincing yourself that you have it under control and are a perfectly healthy person who can enjoy the thing the same way everybody else does. So you'll just have one more go. And then you're back in it. But tomorrow, you'll stop. Then tomorrow. Then the next day.
You would need to have been addicted to something other than punching downwards once in your life to know that, of course.
Years ago, I was addicted to online gambling and poker. I tried to stop. I sought help. I gave my bank cards to my friends to stop myself from being able to have a bet or buy chips. It didn't work. I always found a way. It almost pushed me over the edge, in honesty. What broke the cycle for me was bookmakers and poker sites all bringing in optional spending limits at once. I could drop £50 into my account, and know that there was no way that I could deposit more, so I'd have to be careful and not blow through it all in one shot. The second I had that safety line - and I'll admit that I tried to bypass it a couple of times - I was on the road to recovery. I can join a game of poker or have a small bet on the game at the weekend if I want to and if I think it'll be fun. The cycle was broken as soon as those protections were in place. I chose to employ those restrictions, so I was - in effect - "looking after myself." There have been many years since where I haven't so much as spent a dime on poker or gambling, neither have I really been drawn to.
Gaming doesn't have these protections. At all. Sure, you can set up a "child" account that prevents spending, but that doesn't mean anything when you can go to your local supermarket and buy £100 of FIFA Points and still redeem it. It doesn't help the person who owns both the child and the parent account, who can switch back into the parent account and just spend whatever he or she wants. Each lootbox-enabled game needs an optional spending limit, along with optional time-out periods and entire self-exclusion from purchases, if the player desires.
It isn't about "mental weakness" or "look after yourself." It's about GIVING PEOPLE THE TOOLS to be able to look after themselves when they succumb to the sneaky marketing practices and systems that companies like EA (and every other company that uses lootboxes) employ in an attempt to addict them to their product.
(Also, nobody is asking gamers to do anything. They're asking the lawmakers to do something. That's why it's a lawsuit and not a change.org petition.)
(Sorry for the small book that I just wrote.)